AU2016201787A1 - System for improved access to facilities - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a system for improving access for people with a disability and their carers to facilities and services. The system includes a system server device and mobile communications devices for each user programmed to perform the functions of: displaying to the corresponding user on a visual display screen output a map of a geographical region either surrounding an actual detected location of the user or selected by the user as a destination; showing to the corresponding user on the map locations of services or facilities in the geographical region; providing information to the corresponding user on the accessibility attributes of a particular requested facility or service; recording information generated by corresponding user activity on, or location of, the mobile communications device; issuing reports containing the recorded information, or derived from the recorded information, to subscribers. z 1763 Fig1

Description

SYSTEM FOR IMPROVED ACCESS TO FACILITIES FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to services and facilities that are accessed by people with a disability, their carers and in particular to a system that not only encourages improved accessibility to such services and facilities but may act as a tool to develop a more independent lifestyle.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Approximately 20% of the Australian population experience a disability of some kind. There is a continual growth of disability through birth defects, accidents, disease and an ageing population. There is an increasing pressure and expectation on the provisioning of accessible services and facilities for the disabled community to be provided by governments, private enterprise and local councils. People with a disability and their carers are currently reliant upon inaccurate, infrequently updated, non-environmentally friendly, expensive to reproduce and sometimes hard to read printed maps supplied by local councils and government bodies. Further, providers of accessible facilities have difficulty in obtaining information on the usage levels of current facilities and the future demand and requirements for accessible services, which would allow them to accurately plan improvements and future implementations .

[0003] There is therefore a need to improve access to accessible services and facilities by overcoming one or more of the above-mentioned disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] According to a broad aspect of the invention there is a system for improving accessibility to people with a disability and their carers to facilities and services. The system comprises a system server device and a plurality of mobile communications devices operated by a corresponding plurality of users, the mobile communications devices having geographical location detection capability and user interface capability including at least a visual display screen and touch or voice interface, and being in at least intermittent communication with the system server device; wherein the system server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the functions of: displaying to the corresponding user on the visual display screen output a map of a geographical region either surrounding an actual detected location of the corresponding user or selected by the corresponding user as a destination; showing to the corresponding user on the map locations of services or facilities in the geographical region; providing information to the corresponding user on accessibility attributes of a particular requested facility or service; recording information generated by corresponding user activity on, or location of, the mobile communications device; issuing reports containing the recorded information, or derived from the recorded information, to subscribers.

[0005] In one embodiment, the facilities or services include public or private buildings and the accessibility attributes of the public or private buildings include mobile chair access attributes .

[0006] In one embodiment, the facilities or services include toilet facilities and the accessibility attributes of the toilet facilities include handrail attributes.

[0007] In one embodiment, the facilities services include accessible car parking spaces, both public and private on and off street.

[0008] In one embodiment, the accessibility attributes include comments or ratings.

In one embodiment, the information generated by user activity on, or location of, the associated mobile communications device includes at least one of: a check-in event deliberately activated by the user when one of the facilities or services is visited or used by the user; a visitation event inferred when the geographical location of the associated mobile communications device is detected within a minimum distance of one of the facilities or services; a time profile of the geographical location of the associated mobile communications device; search requests generated by the users; routes travelled by the users; destinations selected by the users; services or facilities enquired about by the users; comments provided by the users in relation to one or more of the services or facilities; time spent by the user in a vicinity of one or more of the services or facilities; or comments provided by the users regarding needs for additional services or facilities currently unavailable in a location.

[0009] In one embodiment, the system server device records demographic information on each user and includes the demographic information in the step of deriving the needs or usage data.

[0010] In one embodiment, the system comprises a capability for subscribers to deliver messages comprising offers or information in relation to a relevant one of the facilities or services to users via their mobile communications devices, the offer or information or a decision to deliver the offer or information being based on either or both of user activity on the mobile communications device or its actual geographical location. There may also be the capability for a user who is a recipient of an offer or information to use the input interface to request further information about the relevant facilities or services including location information.

[0011] In one embodiment, in a category selection mode, the visual display screen output is arranged to display the map of the geographical region as a splash screen disposed behind a set of user touch input category selection icons, each category selection icon functioning when touched to cause display on the map of a specific category of the facilities or services or to offer a specific subset of categories of the facilities or services for selection. One of the touch input icons may cause display on the map of parking areas. One of the touch input icons may cause display on the map of toilet facilities. One of the touch input icons may cause display on the map of food and entertainment facilities. One of the touch input icons may cause display on the map of services including at least one of financial, post, medical or government services.

[0012] In one embodiment, the server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the function of providing access to taxi booking services.

[0013] In one embodiment, the server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the function of providing access to a panic alert service.

[0014] In one embodiment, the function of displaying on the visual display screen output a map is implemented by the server device sending coordinates of the geographical region to a real time map server and retrieving the map from the real time map server for display.

[0015] In one embodiment, the function of visually identifying to the user on the map, locations of services or facilities in the geographical region is implemented by the server device retrieving the locations from a database and displaying icons at the locations on the map.

[0016] In one embodiment, the icons displayed at the locations are touch sensitive and when touched by the user display the disability accessible attributes.

[0017] In one embodiment, when the mobile communications device is held in a landscape mode, the disability accessible attributes of the displayed locations are provided on a list beside the map.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0018] Figure 1 is a block diagram showing components of an embodiment of the invention ; [0019] Figure 2 is a diagram showing key functionalities of the embodiment of Figure 1 including data flow; [0020] Figure 3 shows an example screenshot on a mobile communications device in a category selection mode; [0021] Figure 4 shows an example screenshot on a mobile communications device in landscape mode of the displayed map.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0022] An embodiment of the current invention will now be described.

[0023] Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, system server device 10 plays a command and coordinating role in the system and comprises processor 11 including software for a user interface 12 for interaction with users generically labelled 60, instances of which are labelled 61, 62, 63; a provider interface 13 for interaction with subscribers in this embodiment being service or facility providers generically labelled 40 instances of which are labelled 41, 42, 43; and an administrator interface 14 for interaction with an administrator 30 of server 10. Server 10 also comprises database 15 which stores demographic user information, information about facilities and services and other information generated by user activity as described below. Database 15 may be co-located with processor 11 or located remotely and connected by data networks. While most uses of the system will require that the facilities and services contained in database 15 are ones having at least some accessibility attributes, such as wheelchair ramps in the case of buildings, the system may also be configured to include both accessible and inaccessible services and or facilities. Processor 11 is in communication with a map service provider 20 such as Mapbox (www.mapbox.com) which on command from processor 11 provides appropriate maps of a requested geographical region.

[0024] Each user, being a person with a disability or carer 60 is in possession of a corresponding mobile communications device generically labelled 50 instances of which are labelled 51, 52, 53. Mobile communications device 50 is typically embodied as a smartphone or tablet or other computing device with internal or attached communications capability over mobile or wireless data networks including the Internet. Mobile communications devices 50 have geographical location detection capabilities, examples including a (3PS £bciireceiver with or without augmentation by other location services.

[0025] Acting together, system server device 10 and associated hardware and mobile communications devices 50 are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform a number of functions. Typically, most of the processing intelligence is held on server 10 and the mobile communications devices 50 primarily act as dumb user interfaces. However, embodiments may mix the capabilities and versions where most of the processing intelligence is located on mobile communications devices 50 are contemplated.

[0026] Referring now to Figure 2, key functions of the embodiment of Figure 1 are listed with associated data flow indications. These functions are implemented together by programs running on processor 11 at the server 10 and a dedicated application running on the mobile communications devices 50.

[0027] Function 101 is to determine a geographical location provided either by the actual detected position of a mobile communications device 50 or a geographical location specified by user 60 as a destination of interest. When the actual detected geographical location of the mobile communications device 50 is used, mobile communications device 50 via GPS or location services provides the coordinates over the Internet to processor 11. When user 60 specifies a geographical location of interest, this typically involves interaction with database 15 and map service provider 20 integrating geographical maps and the recorded locations of facilities and services. As an example, user 60 may type on a touchscreen user interface of mobile communications device 50 a desired street address or place of interest, which processor 11 may pass to map service provider 20. Map service provider 20 then outputs the associated geographical location of the street address and map data relating to a vicinity of the geographical location to processor 11. As another example, user 60 may select a particular one from a list of services or facilities which causes mobile communications device 50 to transmit the selection to processor 11, which then looks up the associated geographical location from database 15.

[0028] Function 102 is the capability of displaying on the visual display screen output of mobile communications device 50 the relevant map of the region specified by function 101. Typically, this involves retrieving the relevant map from map service provider 20 if not already done so, and transmitting the map to the mobile communications device 50 for display to user 60. Figure 3 and 4 shows an example map display.

[0029] Function 103 is the capability of augmenting the map with icons representing locations of services or facilities stored in database 15. This may be performed prior to transmission of the map by function 102 by augmenting the map image with the appropriate icon, or subsequent to transmission of the map by function 102 by overlaying the icon images over the already transmitted map image. Figure 4 shows icons such as 300 representing the locations of the services or facilities.

[0030] Function 103 may be modulated by the user in a number of ways. First, personal settings by the user accessed through settings icon 214 in Figure 3 may control whether function 103 causes display of all locations and services in database 15 in the geographical region, or only those locations and services whose accessibility attributes satisfy requirements of user 60. For example, user 60 may have a minor disability and may desire to display all facilities and services irrespective of its accessibility. Alternatively, user 60 may be wheelchair user and require only wheelchair accessible facilities to be displayed. Secondly, function 103 may be modulated by the user specifying in a category selection mode a certain specific category of accessible facilities or services to display. Referring to Figure 3, a screenshot of the category selection mode is shown, where map 200 is still faintly visible as a background splash screen and overlaid on the map are large circular touch input category selection icons 210, 211, 212 and 213 each functioning when touched to cause display on the map of a specific category. For example, category selection icon 210 causes display of accessible parking areas; category selection icon 211 causes display of accessible toilet facilities; category selection icon 212 causes display of services including financial, banks, bank machines, post offices, or government services; category selection icon 213 causes display of food and entertainment facilities .

[0031] Function 104 is the capability of providing information to the user regarding attributes of a particular requested accessible facility or service. Typically, this involves the user visually inspecting the presented icons from function 103 and touching one of the icons, resulting in a request to be sent to processor 11 which provides data from database 15 on the attributes by displaying the data in a pop up window. In addition, the user may select the facility or service from a menu list as shown in items 301 of Figure 4 which is a landscape mode display with the map on a left part of the screen with icons 300 identified by numbers and names and descriptions 301 of the items listed on a right part of the screen. In either method of access, the attributes will depend on the particular type of facility or service selected. For example, wheelchair accessibility is relevant to buildings, handrail attributes and wheelchair accessibility is relevant to toilet facilities. The attributes can also include comments or ratings provided by a systems administrator.

[0032] Function 105 is the recording of information generated by user activity on, or location of, the associated mobile communications device 50. The purpose of recording the information is to be able to improve knowledge of the use of accessible facilities and services, their usefulness and the need for further facilities and services in a geographical region. This knowledge is invaluable to providers of facilities and services in improving accessibility accurately, efficiently and optimally.

[0033] The recorded information may include the existence and timing of a check-in the event deliberately activated by user when one of the facilities or services is visited or used by the user. These check-in events provide a direct measure of usage of the facility or service, and together with demographic information of the user help to provide useful information on the characteristics and typical needs of people who currently use the facility or service.

[0034] The information may further include a less reliable but perhaps more common event, a visitation event inferred from the geographical location information extracted from the mobile communication device associated with the user, when the geographical location is within a minimum distance of one of the facilities or services.

[0035] The information may further include more generally a time profile of the geographical location of the mobile communications device, such as measurements provided once every few minutes .

[0036] The information may further include: each search request generated by the users, including inputs of street addresses and searches for names of facilities or services; destinations selected by the users to be directed towards using a map direction function; routes travelled by the users, as measured for example by logs of the geographical location of the user ; services or facilities enquired about by the users, such as when the user actively requests to see attributes of a facility or service for example by touching the identifier of a facility or service in the list 301 in Figure 4; comments provided by the users using a comment option which may be activated by touching the icon 300 marking the facility or service on the map shown in Figure 4; time spent by the user in a facility or service, which may be inferred from the time profile of geographical location or may be directly measured by the mobile communications device and periodically transferred to server 10; and comments which may be provided by users directly to a system administrator or to a forum or social media facility moderated under the system, regarding needs for additional services or facilities currently unavailable in a geographical location.

[0037] Function 106 is deriving needs data or usage data from the recorded information in function 105. By "needs data" is meant data on the needs of a particular facility or service, or for a particular facility or service which is not available in a location, which may be derived in part from the number of people visiting in that local region and their demographic characteristics including disability characteristics. By "usage data" is meant data on the actual usage of a particular facility or service derived from the recorded information, such as number of check-in events or number of visitation events in a particular time period.

[0038] Function 107 is to issue reports to subscribers, who may be providers, potential providers or funders of the services or facilities. The reports either directly contain the recorded information from function 105, or contain data derived from the recorded information from function 106. A report may be issued to a subscriber for example only in relation to facilities or services owned by the subscriber, or for example only in relation to all facilities or services in a geographical region, depending on the commercial agreement struck with the subscriber or their inherent interest. The report may be highly interpreted or a bare transmission of the relevant recorded information, depending on the needs of the subscriber.

[0039] The system of this embodiment also comprises a capability for subscribers to deliver offers or information to users, for example when they approach the vicinity of a particular facility or service, or when they make an enquiry about that facility or service or related facilities or services. Typically, a user will touch an icon labelled "offers" or similar on the display of the mobile communication device inside the dedicated application, and the user may be shown offers and/or information such as hours of operation, menus or directions to a facility or service.

[0040] Another function of this embodiment that improves the utility of the system for users includes touch sensitive icons on the display of the mobile communications device for calling a taxi or issuing a panic alert. Such functions may be customisable by the user to link to third party service providers of the user's choice and with the user's specifications .

[0041] As described above, embodiments of the invention provide users with a simple interface on their mobile device that allows them to find locations, facilities and services easily. The embodiment described above provides a system which improves accessibility in two major respects-increased ease of access to existing accessible facilities and services, and increased information provision to providers in respect of logging and reporting the accessible facilities and services and other places visited by users. By providing a tool which people with a disability or their carers can effectively utilise to improve their convenience of movement, at the same time as gathering information that can be effectively used by providers to improve the facilities or services directed towards people with a disability or their carers, the invention brings about a dual synergistic improvement in accessibility.

[0042] Persons skilled in the art will also appreciate that many variations may be made to the invention without departing from the scope of the invention, which is determined from the broadest scope and claims.

[0043] For example, many variations are possible as is known in the art to the particular hardware configurations and networks utilised to create embodiments of the invention. While the example provided above utilises real-time access to a map service provider over the Internet, alternative embodiments can comprise maps and information from the database downloaded onto each mobile communication device to allow network free operation of the system for users in regions where mobile Internet connectivity is unavailable or compromised. In such stand-alone operation, the mobile communications device locally makes use of its GPS positioning capability and operates independently of server 10, finally providing recorded information stored on mobile communications device when connection is restored in the future to server 10.

[0044] Further, in its broadest aspect the system server may be provided by any computer and associated communications in a single location or distributed amongst multiple locations in a network which can perform the functions required of it by the broadest aspect.

[0045] Further also, the term "subscriber" in its broadest meaning extends to any interested person or organisation granted access to the report facilities described above in relation to "subscriber's. That access may be granted free or in return for financial or other consideration.

[0046] In the claims which follow and in the preceding description of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" is used in an inclusive sense, i.e. to specify the presence of the stated features but not to preclude the presence or addition of further features in various embodiments of the invention. Further, any functionalities or method steps recited in the claims are not necessarily intended to be performed temporally in the sequence written, or to be performed without pause once started, unless the context requires it.

[0047] It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein; such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Claims (19)

1. A system for improving access for people with a disability and their carers to facilities and services, the system comprising a system server device and a plurality of mobile communications devices operated by a corresponding plurality of users, the mobile communications devices having geographical location detection capability and user interface capability including at least a visual display screen output and touch or voice input interface, and being in at least intermittent communication with the system server device; wherein the system server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the functions of: displaying to the corresponding user on the visual display screen output a map of a geographical region either surrounding an actual detected location of the user or selected by the user as a destination; showing to the corresponding user on the map locations of services or facilities in the geographical region; providing information to the corresponding user on the accessibility attributes of a particular requested facility or service; recording information generated by corresponding user activity on, or location of, the mobile communications device; issuing reports containing the recorded information, or derived from the recorded information, to subscribers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilities or services include public or private buildings and the accessibility attributes of the public or private buildings include mobile chair access attributes .

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilities or services include toilet facilities and the accessibility attributes of the toilet facilities include handrail attributes.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the accessibility attributes include comments or ratings.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein information generated by user activity on, or location of, the associated mobile communications device includes at least one of: a check-in event deliberately activated by the user when one of the facilities or services is visited or used by the user; a visitation event inferred when the geographical location of the associated mobile communications device is detected within a minimum distance of one of the facilities or services; a time profile of the geographical location of the associated mobile communications device; search requests generated by the users; routes travelled by the users; destinations selected by the users; services or facilities enquired about by the users; comments provided by the users in relation to one or more of the services or facilities; time spent by the user in a vicinity of one or more of the services or facilities; or comments provided by the users regarding needs for additional services or facilities currently unavailable in a location.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the system server device records demographic information on each user and includes the demographic information in the step of deriving the needs or usage data.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the system comprises a capability for subscribers to deliver messages comprising offers or information in relation to a relevant one of the facilities or services to users via their mobile communications devices, the offer or information or a decision to deliver the offer or information being based on either or both of user activity on the mobile communications device or its actual geographical location.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the system further comprises the capability for a user who is a recipient of the offer or information to use the input interface to request further information about the relevant one of the facilities or services including location information.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein in a category selection mode, the visual display screen output is arranged to display the map of the geographical region as a splash screen disposed behind a set of user touch input category selection icons, each category selection icon functioning when touched to cause display on the map of a specific category of the facilities or services or to offer a specific subset of categories of the facilities or services for selection.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein one of the touch input icons causes display on the map of parking areas.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein one of the touch input icons causes display on the map of toilet facilities.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein one of the touch input icons causes display on the map of food and entertainment facilities .

13. The system of claim 9, wherein one of the touch input icons causes display on the map of services including at least one of financial, post, medical or government services.

14. The system of claim 1, the system server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the function of providing access to taxi booking services.

15. The system of claim 1, the system server device and each mobile communications device together are programmed or otherwise adapted to perform the function of providing access to a panic alert service.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein function of displaying on the visual display screen output a map is implemented by the server device sending coordinates of the geographical region to a real time map server and retrieving the map from the real time map server for display.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the function of visually identifying to the user on the map locations of services or facilities in the geographical region is implemented by the server device retrieving the locations from a database and displaying icons at the locations on the map.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the icons displayed at the locations are touch sensitive and when touched by the user display the accessibility attributes.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein when the mobile communications device is held in a landscape mode, the accessibility attributes of the displayed locations are provided on a list beside the map.